Meta’s been rather lively with its updates this year, especially during the earlier half of 2022. While its Metaverse updates might have taken the back seat after August, it has continued to dish out updates on its other fronts that have either improved or added utility, if not served as simple quality-of-life updates. So, as the year rounds once again, a recent update from Meta might just be the best summary of its 2022 innovation efforts.
Reels Creation+
As seen in this image shared by app researcher Radu Oncescu (subsequently shared by Matt Navarra), Meta’s adding yet another way for users to share Reels on Facebook because we can never have too many ways to create and share Reels now, can we? What’s more, this new option would be available even if users didn’t have their own videos to upload to the app.
Following TikTok’s explosive growth, Meta has been trying to get more users to share more short-form videos to essentially try and tap into the same, aligning its own platforms with what it considers a transformative usage shift. To do this, Meta’s added a heap of tools and processes designed to both highlight short clips in Feeds and facilitate the simplified creation of such, with this latest iteration being the ultimate end-game.
Here’s a reconstruction of Meta’s evolution throughout 2022 as a conversation:
‘We’ve got short-form video too.’
‘We’re making short-form video a priority.’
‘We’re inserting short-form video into the main feed, from people and Pages that you don’t follow.’
‘You really should try short-form video yourself.’
‘Really.’
‘Please upload short-form video.’
‘Seriously, we’ve made it so easy, you don’t even have to record video, we’ll do all the work for you.’
Again, the option summarizes all that Meta has been working towards on both Facebook and Instagram, which is essentially just using TikTok as its product development lead, hoping that doing so would be enough to slow TikTok stealing its thunder.
The Wrap
How has this strategy worked out so far? Well, Meta has repeatedly noted that Reels usage is on the rise and continues to generate big traction, hinting that there would be a significant percentage of Facebook and Instagram users who simply can’t be bothered to download a new app. Really, these are the target audience for Reels. Meta’s not really looking to beat TikTok at its own game, but more so to stop its users from leaving, which should play out well if ever TikTok does get the ban hammer dropped on it in the US.
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